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Starship Down (episode)
Series: DS9 Season: 4 Original Airdate: 1995-11-15 Production Number: 479 Year: 2372 Stardate: 49263.5 Story by: David Mack & John J. Ordover Directed by: Alexander Singer Sisko defends a Karemma ship when it is attacked by the Jem'Hadar. Summary The [[USS Defiant|USS Defiant]] rendezvous with a Karemma Commerce Ministry vessel above a remote gas giant in the Gamma Quadrant in order to discuss trade issues. In a meeting between Trade Minister Hanok, Captain Benjamin Sisko and Quark in the Defiant's mess hall, Hanok expresses frustration in trading with the Federation, citing a series of mysterious heavy taxes and fees. Since the Ferengi are being used as middlemen between the Federation and Karemma to avoid angering the Dominion, Sisko realizes that Quark has been cooking the books. On the bridge in command, Worf gruffly reprimands a young officer, Ensign Carson, for poor results in a weapons drill, and orders a fifteen percent decrease in response times. Meanwhile, Major Kira Nerys tells Lieutenant Jadzia Dax that she is fasting in observation of Ha'mara, the anniversary of the Sisko the Emissary's arrival to Bajor. Kira suspects Captain Sisko, who dislikes ceremonies, of purposely scheduled these trade negotiations to avoid attending Ha'mara. Kira wished he had attended, as it would have meant a lot to the Bajoran people. "Moving to intercept" Suddenly, sensors pick up two incoming Jem'Hadar warships. They have come to punish the Karemma for trading with the Federation. Red Alert is initiated, and Sisko and Minister Hanok come to the bridge. Hanok offers to surrender himself in exchange for all their lives, but Sisko will have none of that. The Jem'Hadar begin attacking both ships. In blind panic, the Karemma ship begins moving away, fleeing into the upper atmosphere of the gaseous Class-J planet. The Jem'Hadar and the Defiant are in hot pursuit. Kira notes that she is reading windspeeds of 10,000 kph, while Hanok, overwhelmed with guilt, notes that twenty-three people are on that ship. Sisko is determined to save the trade ship, and orders the Defiant into the planet's turbulent atmosphere. Chief Miles O'Brien and his young subordinates, Crewmen Muniz and Stevens, attempt to channel more power into the ship's structural integrity fields. Despite their precautions, the ship is violently buffeted by air currents. Inside the gas giant, the crew discover more bad news. The interference has restricted their sensor visibility to less than two kilometres, plus rendered their cloaking device and weapon targeting systems inoperable. Major Kira and Lt. Dax suggest using modulated tetrion pulses to actively scan via echolocation. During the Occupation, Kira used this method to evade Cardassian ships in the Badlands. Unfortunately, each pulse would give the Defiant's location away as well, meaning the ship would have to change speed and course after every scan. As the crew begin working on their echolocation scanner, Minister Hanok returns to the mess hall. There, Quark tries to convince Hanok that the bogus surcharges was an honest mistake by his "idiot" brother Rom. Hanok doesn't buy the explanation, and angrily tells Quark that, if they survive, he will ensure that Quark will never again conduct commerce in the Gamma Quadrant. Meanwhile on the bridge, the echolocation pulses have detected an object four hundred kilometres beneath them. The Defiant gingerly move toward it, emitting pulses to keep its bearings. Suddenly, two more blips appear, moving fast toward them - it's the Jem'Hadar. The Defiant is rocked hard by phaser fire. Shields are drained to 60%, and emergency lights flicker on. Impulse power goes offline, and the ship starts falling into the planet. With ODN relays overloaded, Dax and Ensign Muniz race to Jefferies tube Four to manually reroute power to the engines. As the external hull pressure rises, the ship groans ominously. Dax tries to calm Muniz while they work, by quipping that the groaning sounds a lot like a Yridian symphony. On the bridge, Worf delivers more damage reports to Sisko. The phaser couplings have overloaded, and will take two hours to repair. Sisko brainstorms a plan with O'Brien to equip their two atmospheric probes with quantum torpedo warheads. O'Brien sends the nervous, young engineer Stevens to the torpedo bay to modify the probes. Suddenly, a large explosion rocks the ship. A hull breach has occured on Deck 2. Emergency forcefields activate, but Kira knows they will not last long within the atmosphere. The crew must seal off the deck to save the rest of the ship, but this will mean sacrificing the crewmates in sickbay, plus Dax and Muniz in the Jeffries tube. "I hate the Gamma Quadrant" Bashir begins evacuating sickbay. Dax and Muniz are working as fast as they can to finish their job. Sisko gives them thirty seconds to clear out before he seals off the entire deck. As Bashir herds everyone behind a bulkhead, he sees Dax and Muniz heading toward them. However, it's too late - the forcefield collapses, filling the corridor with swirling poisonous gases. Muniz suddenly stumbles toward Bashir, who pulls him to safety. With Sisko ordering the bulkhead closed and Dax still missing, Bashir makes up his mind...he hits the switch to close the door, holds his breath, and runs out into the decompressed hallway. Bashir manages to find Dax's unconscious form in the rolling gas, and drags her into an open turbolift. He hurriedly uses the door panel to close the door, and repressurizes the turbolift. They're safe, but he realizes that the communications system is broken. They're trapped. Kira somberly notes that the impulse engines are back on line. As far as they know, it was Dax's final sacrifice. The Defiant gains altitude and resumes searching for the Karemma. In the mess hall, Quark tries to salvage the trade deal, flattering Hanok for uncovering his clever scam, but Hanok rebukes him a second time. On the bridge, Kira has found another blip, and she thinks it's a Jem'Hadar ship. She turns off the pulses, and the Defiant, now flying blind, creeps up behind the Jem'Hadar's last known position. Sisko orders a full stop, and shutdown of all non-essential systems. They will fire one of the modified atmospheric probes, and hope it homes in and destroys the Jem'Hadar ship. The Defiant fires the probe, and immediately the Jem'Hadar ship ambushes them from behind, guns blazing. It scores several direct hits, dealing serious damage. Sisko is thrown off his feet, and the bridge is plunged into darkness. Their attackers are about to finish them off when the probe homes in and blows the Jem'Hadar ship into dust. The crew have taken out one enemy vessel, but the Defiant is severely damaged. O'Brien is convinced that the bridge crew have been all killed. "You have to try to stay awake for me" Fortunately, some of the bridge crew did survive, although the bridge systems did not. Two junior officers are dead, and Sisko is on the floor, bleeding from a concussion and barely conscious. Worf and Carson head to the engine room to take control but Kira, fearing Sisko will slip into a coma, stays behind to keep Sisko awake. In the turbolift on Deck 2, Dax and Bashir remain trapped. They only have a few hours of air left in the lift. Dax coughs up some fluorine gas. She thanks Bashir for rescuing her, and muses how much their relationship has changed; "If you'd have done something like this a year ago, I would've thought you were trying to be a hero," she teases. "Now that I know you better, I realize it was just a stupid thing to do." Meanwhile, Quark attempts again to change Hanok's mind. He can't believe that the Karemma conducts all their business ventures above board. "Where's the greed?" he asks. Hanok can't believe the Ferengi would gamble away their business prospects for a few dollars more. Worf arrives in the engine room, and takes command. With his typical authoriatan manner, he berates and orders O'Brien's staff around. Meanwhile, Kira tries to keep Sisko awake by talking about mundane work issues, but Sisko is falling asleep. They realize they always talk about work, and Kira confesses that Sisko being the revered Emissary means she finds it hard to relax and be herself around him. In response, Sisko asks Kira is she can tell him a story. In the engine room, they've picked up two more blips - but they're too small and too fast to be ships. It dawns on O'Brien - they're torpedoes. The Defiant swerves to port, and the first warhead misses, but they cannot dodge the second torpedo in time. Everyone braces for impact - but nothing happens. Meanwhile, Quark and Hanok in the mess hall stare at a Jem'Hadar torpedo that has jammed itself in the back wall. "I only need one shot" Quark decides to attempt to defuse the warhead, and puts his safecracking skills to work. The engine room guesses where the torpedo impacted the hull, but they are cut off from the mess hall. When Stevens expresses doubt in Worf's command to strengthen structural integrity in that area, Worf curtly cuts him off. O'Brien quietly suggests to Worf that he "loosen up on the reins". Worf vows to consider his advice. Trapped in the turbolift, Bashir muses how he fantasized that him and Dax would be trapped adrift on a runabout. He explains it was because she was always avoiding him, and Dax explains it's because he came on too strong. They exchange a laugh. In the engine room, Worf tries a more participatory style of leadership. Approaching Muniz and Stevens, he solicits their help in improvising another weapon. The bright engineers brainstorm using the deflector dish as a makeshift, one-shot phaser, and Worf approves their plan. On the bridge, Sisko's condition worsens. Kira begins praying over his prone body in her native tongue. In the engine room, the deflector weapon is configured. The echolocation pulse is restarted, and the crew wait for the final confrontation. "It's a gamble. Go with your instinct" In the mess hall, Quark has managed to open the warhead. Hanok points directly to two diodes and describes their function; one will turn off the power, the other will trigger the detonator. As Quark questions him, Hanok admits these torpedoes are Karemma made. Hanok doesn't know which diode does what, which complicates matters. Quark says they will have to take a chance and just guess. When Hanok hesitates, Quark just randomly picks a diode and pulls it out...and the torpedo powers down. Afterwards, Hanok admits that the gamble was exciting. This time, Quark challenges him to reopen trade negotiations and try to outsmart him. Hanok accepts. Meanwhile, the Jem'Hadar ship has locked onto their pinging, and comes in for the kill. Too late, it discovers the source of the pinging is actually the second atmospheric probe...the Defiant ambushes them from behind, destroying the Jem'Hadar with a single deflector blast. The Defiant rescues the Karemma, although the trade ship is too damaged and is abandoned. Everyone arrives safely back at Deep Space 9 and Quark's bar. Minister Hanok, invigorated from living on the edge, takes up dabo. To Quark's detriment, he turns out to be a natural at it. Dax invites Bashir to a game of darts. Stevens gives Worf the repair schedule, and to his delight, Worf allows the engineers to proceed at their own discretion. However, O'Brien interrupts, and curtly tells Stevens he has twelve hours to complete the repairs. After Stevens leaves, O'Brien sagely remarks to Worf, "You have to give them a lot of slack, but you can't take your hands off the reins." In Ops, a recovering Sisko finishes a meeting with Kira, and then asks if she would like to accompany him to a baseball game in the holosuites. Kira gladly accepts. Memorable Quotes *O'Brien: The Captain's gotten us out of tougher spots than this. Last year, when the Romulans tried to invade the Founder's homeworld, we went up against a dozen Jem'Hadar ships. :Stevens: I know, Chief. You've told me the story. :O'Brien: Yeah? Well unless you want to hear it again, you'd better get down to the torpedo bay and start working on those probes! *Hanok: We sell these torpedoes to the Jem'Hadar. :Quark: I thought you said you'd never sold substandard merchandise...It was supposed to explode on impact, wasn't it? :Hanok: Maybe I should offer them a refund! Background Information The working title of this episode was Starships Down. This episode is seen be many as an adaptation of classic submarine thrillers such as "Das Boot". Links and References Guest Stars * F.J. Rio as Enrique Muniz * James Cromwell as Hanok * Sara Mornell as Carson * Jay Baker as Stevens References dualitic inverter,Jo'kala, kava, Tarkalian sheep herders Previous Episode: Rejoined Episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Next Episode: Little Green Men Category:DS9 episodes de:Das Wagnis (DS9)